Washington University Researchers To Use $2.9m Grant For Dementia Vaccine Development

The National Institute on Aging has awarded Washington University researchers a $2.9 million grant to help develop vaccines that could eventually help ward against dementia.

The Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, are set to use the funding from the National Institute on Aging to design vaccines that will “train a person’s own immune system to take out” accumulations of amyloid beta and tau proteins, which are believed to be a leading cause of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to a press release.

Researchers will hone in on inflammation of the brain due to protein accumulation, which is a dementia precursor.

Previous research on the topic “used strong vaccine adjuvants to ensure attacks on amyloid beta, but that caused adverse effects in some patients,” noted Jai Rudra, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the school’s McKelvey School of Engineering.

“Adjuvants can ensure that the immune system will see misfolded proteins as ‘foreign material,’ but the inflammation that ensues could do more damage than it’s worth,” the release reads. “Instead, Rudra is using a nanofiber platform he developed in previous vaccine research.”

He added that “nanofibers have unique properties that make them attractive for making antibodies to tau and amyloid beta proteins, and they don’t cause inflammation like other adjuvants.”

Researchers will test the vaccines on mice engineered to develop disorders that mimic various dementias in the brain. Researchers will test the vaccine both as a preventative and after dementia symptoms have developed.

WashU is also in the process of blood testing for “early detection of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases.”

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